From Pioneers to Protégés: The Importance of Mentorship and Innovation at the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Innovation is one of the defining characteristics of the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and mentorship perpetuates this innovation as part of a positive feedback loop. After all, mentorship was crucial in creating a foundation for the brilliant division chiefs who conduct cutting-edge research at USC, and these same division chiefs are instrumental in encouraging the next generation of clinician-scientists through their own mentorship practices.

This is certainly true for clinicians and researchers like Dr. Bozena Wrobel (MD), Division Chief of Rhinology and Skull Base Surgery; Dr. Jeffrey Koempel (MD, MBA), Division Chief of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles; Dr. Joni Doherty (MD, PhD), Division Chief of Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery; and Dr. Michael Johns (MD), Director of Medical Student Education and Division Chief of Laryngology. For instance, Dr. Wrobel was initially involved in nephrology research while attending medical school in Warsaw, as this had the strongest student research society at her university, but during her last year of medical school, she met a charismatic ear surgeon named Professor Henryk Skarzynski who was at the frontier of the “cochlear implant revolution,” bringing to Poland the newest technology and auditory research. Just when Dr. Wrobel thought that her future was set in neurotology, she took an opportunity to delve into the newly emerging field of rhinology and endoscopic skull base surgery (a simultaneously exciting and controversial procedure at the time), studying with her amazing fellowship mentor, the late Dr. Donald Leopold, who introduced her to Professor Peter-John Wormald from Adelaide University, the “Mozart of Rhinology.” Rather than following a more conventional trajectory in otolaryngology, Dr. Wrobel’s mentors inspired her to take the sorts of risks that would lead to some of the most important breakthroughs in the field.

Similarly, Dr. Koempel credits the influence of his mentors with giving him the skills necessary to expand and build out CHLA’s otolaryngology practice. Dr. Koempel notes: “When I first arrived at CHLA, I was only one of three attending surgeons – and one left very shortly thereafter. This was a very small group for such a large children’s hospital in a major city. I was excited to be a part of the growth of the practice, clinically and academically. Furthermore, I am very proud that I have grown the full-time faculty to five (we are actively searching for a sixth full-time faculty member) and that I have included a number of multidisciplinary clinics and have started an ACGME-accredited pediatric otolaryngology fellowship.” He credits Dr. Edward Applebaum, the chair of his residency at the University of Illinois, for his constant effort to continually improve the educational program; Dr. Lauren Holinger, program director of the pediatric otolaryngology fellowship at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, for demonstrating the benefits of being organized and detail-oriented; Dr. Kenneth Geller, his predecessor as Chief of the Division of Otolaryngology at CHLA, for his emphasis on the patients’ and families’ needs and desired outcome; and Dr. Paul Feldstein, one of his professors in business school at UC Irvine, for giving him a new lens with which to view the practice of medicine. The sum total of these mentorship experiences provided Dr. Koempel with the insights and ambitions to lead the Division of Otolaryngology at CHLA to expand and provide greater interdisciplinary educational opportunities for future clinicians, with the hope that CHLA will be an institution of choice for prospective pediatric otolaryngology fellows for many generations to come.

Interestingly, several of the division chiefs have demonstrated that mentorship need not only occur in a strictly academic or medical setting, citing the influence of their families as providing a significant influence in the trajectories of their careers. Dr. Joni Doherty, for example, noted that her older sister, who is also an otolaryngologist, convinced her to do an ENT rotation in medical school, which made her realize that she absolutely loved the field, and Dr. Michael Johns’ father was an otolaryngologist, giving him early exposure and mentorship. He would even bring the younger Dr. Johns with him to the office when he did not have childcare. Though Dr. Wrobel’s parents had no involvement in the field of otolaryngology or in medicine more generally, she grew up in a familial environment that encouraged a strong admiration for hard work and striving for excellence, and her father was in his fifties when he went back to school to do his MBA in order to become a CEO. “This was probably the biggest inspiration for me,” she says. “Through his example, he proved how much you can achieve no matter what age or life situation you are in. My father was my first mentor in the line of incredible people who influenced my career choices later on.” His example would go on to inform her own mentorship practices, as she argues that faculty mentorship occurs primarily through inspiration: “if you do things with passion–incorporating the newest technology, practicing evidence-based medicine with integrity and humility, and having an army of happy patients–that speaks for itself.”

Dr. Johns pushes this further, noting that one of his own mentors, Dr. Robert Ossoff, taught him the valuable lesson of empowering one’s mentees and letting them be in the spotlight, another important step in the positive feedback loop of mentorship and innovation. As an example, one of Dr. Johns’ mentees, Dr. Karla O’Dell (MD), completed her residency at USC when there was no fellowship-trained laryngologist on the faculty. When she returned to USC after completing a fellowship in Laryngology and Care of the Professional Voice at Oregon Health Sciences University, she had a special interest/expertise in airway reconstruction. Her interdisciplinary approach and belief that the best way to treat airway issues was through the collaboration of otolaryngology, thoracic surgery, and interventional pulmonology led to the creation of the USC Air Center, which she co-directs and which works together as a team on airway stenosis cases. According to Dr. Johns, this is the ultimate goal of mentorship–for one’s team members to succeed and thrive.